Welcome to the webbed and wired edition of R&R, aristotle. We’ll be doing the same sort of song and dance here as we do in print: reviewing the latest comics and cartoon-related books and ranting about trends and abuses and unfathomable foolishnesses. Each installment will stay here for about four weeks, with a new one coming in just about every other week or so. If you don’t have the time to ponder every punctuation mark in this deathless prose and merely want to see what might be there that would interest you, we suggest you scroll down the page looking for the bold-face type that heralds the notables who reside herein this week. So here we go with the Opus 257 (and a reprise of Opus 256):

Opus 257: Four Black Cartoonists & the Knock of the Gestapo (February 28, 2010).

Opus 256: God of Manga, Mr. Fish Fulminates, Comics Shrink & Dustin Debuts (February 14, 2010).

Opus 257 (February 28, 2010). Before we get around to celebrating Black History Month, I plunge headlong into the national disgrace being perpetrated on us all by the way Christopher Handley and his collection of manga are being treated by our so-called justice system. Reading about his case, I have difficulty believing we’re still living in the land of the free and the home of the brave. There ain’t much justice in Handley’s case: the judge displayed admirable forbearance in sentencing the manga collector, but the law under which he had to operate is a blatant offense to the ideas upon which this country was founded. Justice done under that law is justice perverted. After inveighing against that disgrace, I meander through various news items of the last few weeks and wind up with an abridged history of black cartoonists in the mainstream press. I started out thinking I’d contribute to Black History Month with short bios and appreciation for the work of three of my favorite African American cartoonists—Ted Shearer, Ray Billingsley, and Milton Knight (who I lost track of for a decade or more but who I have found again). But in setting it up with what I intended as a short introduction, I was seduced: the more I got into it, the more I got into it. I came across a comic strip called Tempus Todd, ostensibly the first mainstream comic strip with an adult black male as protagonist—and after that, I followed wherever the crumbs in the forest led me. And before I got to the three I started out heading for, I paused over Morrie Turner, so fateful a distinguished pioneer that no attempt at an overview of the African American in comics can pass him by. Ditto Ollie Harrington, Jackie Ormes, and Bungleton Green. Having piled all these people up, I then realized I’d neglected comic books, and before I knew it, I was into Milestone, and on and on. There’s more, though, between here and there: here’s what’s here, in order, by department:

OUR NONEXISTENT LIBERTIES

The Shameful End of the Christopher Handley Case

NOUS R US

Marvel Apologizes to the Tea Baggers

Who Would Win? Batman or Superman?

Steve Geppi’s Financial Woes

Eduardo Barreto Too Ill To Draw

The New Yorker’s Anniversary Cover

Winner of the Gold Stanley in Australia

New Chicago Comic-Con

Dennis the Menace Toned Down

EDITOONERY

Matt Wuerker Gets the Herblock

A FEW OF COMICS HISTORY’S BLACK CARTOONISTS

Morrie Turner, Ted Shearer, Ray Billingsley, and Milton Knight

ONWARD, THE SPREADING PUNDITRY

More of the Usual Nonsense

And our customary reminder: when you get to the $ubscriber/Associate Section (perusal of which is restricted to paid subscribers), don’t forget to activate the “Bathroom Button” by clicking on the “print friendly version” so you can print off a copy of just this installment for reading later, at your leisure while enthroned. Without further adieu, then, here we go—

STAY TOONED!

Just heard that the fifth issue of John Read’s Stay Tooned! is now out and about. This issue features profiles of Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey), Jack & Carole Bender (Alley Oop), editorial cartoonist Jeff Koterba, caricature artist Joe Bluhm, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast, and Justin Thompson (webcomic Mythtickle); mini interviews conducted by Scott Nickel with Alex Hallatt (Arctic Circle), Sandra Bell-Lundy (Between Friends), Stephanie McMillan (Minimum Security), Stephanie Piro (Six Chix), and Terri Libenson (The Pajama Diaries); a report on the recent USO-sponsored NCS cartoonists tour to the Mideast; plus articles/columns contributed by Tom Richmond, Bill Janocha (who also drew the cover), Don Hagist, John Hambrock and moi, your keyboard man here at Rancid Raves Intergalactic Wurlitzer. To order you very own copy, beam up to staytoonedmagazine.com —just a mere $9, plus $2 p&h.

OUR NONEXISTENT LIBERTIES

How the Gestapo Works in the United States of America

Do you know that you can be thrown in jail if your comics collection includes any pictures of young people—perhaps “children”; yes, some young people are young enough to be called “children”—in positions suggesting they are engaging in sexual activity or are about to engage in sexual activity? If you are a scholar studying various kinds of manga, you risk your liberty—particularly if, among the manga you are studying, there are lolicon, manga in which childlike female characters are depicted in an erotic manner. Pictures, perhaps, like these. .

In short, do you know that your private proclivities—if they have anything to do with sex—endanger your freedom? That you have, in effect, no privacy whatsoever? That is the lesson we must derive from the case of Christopher Handley, the 39-year-old Iowan with manga in his comic book collection, who was sentenced on February 10 to six months in jail and five years probation because someone thought a minute portion of his collection was “child pornography.”

          Here’s the February 12 report from ICv2, a report that should send chills up and down your spine. I’ve boldfaced and italicized the particularly outrageous affronts to personal liberty that are manifest in this stunningly gestapo action:

*****

Christopher Handley was sentenced Wednesday, February 10, to six months in the federal prison system for “possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children,” (i.e., manga). The judge asked that the “Defendant be considered for placement at a community correctional facility or if that is not available, placement at a medical security facility so that Defendant’s medical needs can be adequately met.”

          The jail time will be followed by three years of supervised release on that count. During the supervised release Handley is to participate in a treatment program to include psychological testing and a polygraph examination. Handley was sentenced to five years of probation on the “mailing obscene matter” count, which will run concurrently with the supervised release to the degree the sentences overlap. The sentence also included a $200 forfeiture, and the forfeiture of the manga and the computer used to order them.

          The elements above were all agreed to by the defense and the prosecution and presented to the judge as a joint sentencing recommendation. There was no requirement in the sentence issued by the judge that Handley register as a sex offender, nor was there a requirement in the sentence that he stay away from children.

          Three counts were dismissed at the request of the prosecution based on the plea agreement. The U.S. Attorney described Handley in his sentencing brief in a way that could probably describe many manga fans. “His primary means of social interaction with others has not been involvement in the community, but has been playing online role-playing games,” the brief said of Handley. “Mr. Handley recognizes that these hobbies have been a compulsion, causing him to incur ‘significant debt from buying various Japanese art forms’ and ‘upgrading his computer system.’” The sentencing brief also described the results of a psychological exam of Handley.

          The prosecution’s sentencing brief listed the seven manga that were in the package intercepted by the postal inspector [RCH: See Opus 239 for the description of this outrageous invasion of privacy]:

Book 1) “unfinished school girl” (presented by TAMACHI YUKI) (LE Comics);

Book 2) “I ! DOLL” (MAKAFUSIGI presents) (Seraphim Comics);

Book 3) “for ESSENTIAL 3" (THE ANIMAL SEX ANTHOLOGY Vol.3) (Izumi Comics);

Book 4) “NEKOGEN, Neighboring House Family” (MD Comics);

Book 5) ISBN4-89465-172-6 (No English language title found) (Seraphim Comics);

Book 6) ISBN4-89465-222-6 (No English language title found) (Seraphim Comics); and

Book 7) ISBN4-89465-193-9 (No English language title found) (Seraphim Comics).

          The prosecution argued that comics were worthy of the same prosecution as real depictions of sex acts involving children: “Some may argue that the crime at issue is not serious because no real children were involved. Such a viewpoint is short-sighted because it gives little weight to the nature of obscenity crimes, in general, and to the specific images involved in this case. A picture, proverbially, paints a thousand words, and there is no doubt that comic books, graphic novels, and works of manga and anime have a powerful ability to communicate through their use of dramatic imagery. Since the 1960s, the genre of comic books has been transformed from a target market of younger customers to a broad, word-wide market aimed at older, more mature consumers. The ground-breaking graphic novel, Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons was even named by Time magazine of one of its top 100 novels of the 20th century. The power of the illustrated story should not be short-changed.” [RCH: The last sentences, ostensibly “explaining” how short-sighted it is to ignore drawings of sex acts involving children, does not, actually, explain any such thing. But it does reveal that the commercial and artistic success of comics as a literary genre has become, in the twisted mind of this legal pervert, a lever by which some unsuspecting citizen can be pried from his fundamental liberty. What kind of a country are we living in?]

          The prosecution notes, as the defense does in its brief, that there are no analogous cases to use for sentencing guidance because is the first time that comics (or other not-real depictions) have been prosecuted as a federal crime under the new statute. The defense counsel’s brief noted that no actual pornography was found in Handley’s home or on his computer, and that the lolicon material was “only a minute portion of his entire collection, which consisted of tens of thousands of manga and anime, representing all genres of the art form.”

          The defense said that Handley was aware of a recent Supreme Court decision. “He didn’t know that these books were illegal—they were just drawings, after all, and the Supreme Court had recently held a statute outlawing ‘virtual’ child pornography to violate the Constitution, a fact of which Mr. Handley was aware,” the brief said. Handley did not know, however, that Congress had passed another law banning the same materials after that decision, which it deemed more likely to pass constitutional muster.

          Since this case was pleaded out, we won’t know whether that’s the case until a defendant willing to take the matter to trial is charged. In addition to the legal and other arguments the defense made in its brief, it also provided a group of character references of Handley. We’ll wrap up our account of this sad day with the final paragraphs of the letter from Michael Snavely, Sr., a friend of Handley’s.

          “Regarding this case, I am personally unable to understand the reasoning and justice behind the criminalization of the act of reading a comic book that contains objectionable sexual material. This is especially hard to understand when other more heinous material permeates our society and has not been criminalized.

          “Murder, for instance, is glorified and portrayed with real humans in movies. If it is true that a person is likely to commit the crime of child molestation merely because that person has been looking at drawings depicting that act then why is it not a crime to watch movies or look at drawings of murder? Murder is considered a more serious crime, is it not? I fail to see the reasoning behind the criminalization of the lesser and not the more serious.

          “It is therefore my opinion that Chris has once again taken responsibility for an act even when the criminality of that act could not have been known to anyone not in the legal profession. How is one to know whether or not a particular drawing is obscene? Who determines what obscene is? The term would surely vary depending on region and religious upbringing of the people attempting to define it.

          “I am truly sorry that Chris has been the victim of such a pitiful legal defense and lawmakers attempting to legislate morality. It is my hope that you will also see the injustice of this situation. I fully trust and expect you to carry out your responsibility to ‘we the people’ and do what is right.”

*****

“Murder is considered a more serious crime, is it not? I fail to see the reasoning behind the criminalization of the lesser and not the more serious.” Snavely can’t see the reasoning because reason does not enter into such situations. Murder is not sex; but sex is sex. And sex, without much question, is responsible in this country for the propagation of more injustice per square foot than just about any other human knack with the possible exception of racism.

          As a nation, we have a decidedly confused (perhaps insane) attitude about sex and obscenity. Our bewilderment is probably rooted in a misbegotten sense of morality fostered by our Puritanical religious heritage, which successfully proclaimed, without a basis in any fact about human nature, that sex is bad or nasty or wrong, somehow, which leads, inevitably, to the sort of confusion Butch Hancock, a songwriter, discovered as a boy growing up in Texas: “Sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth, and you should save it for someone you love.”

          Our attitudes are alarmingly contradictory, as Hustler publisher Larry Flynt memorably points out: “Murder is a crime; writing about it isn’t. Sex is not a crime, but writing about it is. Why?”

          Despite our aversion to sex in any form, we exploit our relentless interest in it. Said sociologist Philip Stater: “If we define pornography as any message from any commercial medium that is intended to arouse sexual excitement, then it is clear that most advertisements are covertly pornographic.”

          Stephanie Black, head of marketing at the Playboy channel, adds: “On tv you can use sex to sell anything except sex.”

          In our attitudes about sex, we are unique in the world, as Marlene Dietrich, an undeniable expert, observed: “In America, sex is an obsession; in other parts of the world, it is a fact.”

          The law Handley was charged with breaking is a highly questionable matter itself. Section 504 of the PROTECT Act, designed to stop trafficking in child pornography, prohibits distribution or possession of “a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting” that “(1) shows a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (2) is obscene; (3) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and (4) lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”

          Attorney Eric Chase, acting in some capacity on Handley’s behalf, successfully petitioned a district judge to rule the last two clauses unconstitutional because they restrict free speech. I fail to see how picturing a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct (1) is any less a restriction of free speech than picturing a minor engaged in graphic bestiality etc. (3); it seems to me that if the last two clauses restrict free speech, so do the first two.

          The dubious judicial determination here is an affront to common sense and probably indicative of the unconstitutionality of the entire law. But the judge let the first two charges stand, so Handley went to trial, charged with possessing an obscenity and/or a visual depiction showing a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

          The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund did not provide the defense for Handley, but was a special consultant to Handley’s defense team, providing access to First Amendment experts, recommending expert witnesses on manga, and funding expert research for an eventual jury trial.

          "Handley's case is deeply troubling, because the government is prosecuting a private collector for possession of art," said CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein last spring. "In the past, CBLDF has had to defend the First Amendment rights of retailers and artists, but never before have we experienced the Federal Government attempting to strip a citizen of his freedom because he owned comic books.”

          Putting the case into context, Burton Joseph, CBLDF's Legal Counsel said: "In the lengthy time in which I have represented CBLDF and its clients, I have never encountered a situation where criminal prosecution was brought against a private consumer for possession of material for personal use in his own home.”

          The gestapo may be knocking on your door next.

*****

We discussed the Handley case and some of its implications in Opus 239; Opus 243 reports Handley’s plea bargain and extends the discussion started in Op. 239. I urge you to read both again. It will make you shudder. Handley sounds like a man whose hobby has taken possession of him in ways that are scarcely healthy (and he probably realizes this, hence his plea bargain), but that is neither here nor there. His privacy was invaded, his freedom to be whatever he wanted to be as long as it didn’t infringe upon the liberties of others was ignored. It could be you or me.

          Manga are on sale in major book stores; and lolicon may lurk among them. Here’s what you can find about lolicon on the Web at Wikipedia:

*****

Lolicon, also romanized as rorikon, is a Japanese portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex.” In Japan, the term describes an attraction to young girls, or an individual with such an attraction. Outside Japan, the term is less common and most often refers to a genre of manga and anime wherein childlike female characters are depicted in an erotic manner. The phrase is a reference to Vladimir Nabokov's book, Lolita, in which a middle-aged man becomes sexually obsessed with a 12-year-old girl. The equivalent term for attraction to (or art pertaining to erotic portrayal of) young boys is shotacon.

          Some critics claim that the lolicon genre contributes to actual sexual abuse of children, while others claim that there is no evidence for this, or that there is evidence to the contrary. Although several countries have attempted to criminalize lolicon's sexually explicit forms as a type of child pornography, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the Philippines and Ireland are among the few to have actually done so.

          Also, there’s this: Generally, lolicon is a term used to describe a sexual attraction to younger girls, or girls with youthful characteristics. In other words, it can refer to actual or perceived pedophilia and ephebophilia. Strictly speaking, Lolita complex in Japanese refers only to the paraphilia itself, but the abbreviation lolicon can refer to an individual that has the paraphilia as well. Lolicon is a widespread phenomenon in Japan, where it is a frequent subject of scholarly articles and criticism. Many general bookstores and newsstands openly offer illustrated lolicon material, but there has also been police action against lolicon manga. There are also stores that specifically target the lolicon audience. The consumers are said to be white-collar workers in their 20s and 30s who do not complain about the high prices of lolicon merchandise such as figurines and accessories.

*****

RCH again: Because so much manga features characters with childlike faces, any of those stories that edge into the realm of romance (the kinds of books teenage girls are grabbing up by the bushel) could be seen as lolicon—or, in this country, child pornography.

          The gestapo has the ammunition; it lacks only the impulse and the opportunity.

NOUS R US

Some of All the News That Gives Us Fits

In his Cup of Joe feature at comicbookresources, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada apologized for a scene in Captain America No. 602 that, Fox News alleged, “seems to be a clear effort on someone’s part to undermine the Tea Party movement.” The scene depicts a street protest in which a sign has the slogan “Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!” Quesada said that the letterer borrowed the slogan from an actual sign held at a protest he found depicted on the Web. Unhappily, the protest in the story wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with the Tea Party movement, according to Quesada. The mistake provoked what Fox News described as “a chorus of critics who noticed the apparent jab at the Tea Party movement and who accused Marvel of making supervillains out of patriotic Americans.”

          Quesada said that Marvel has an editorial policy that “Our books are no one’s soapbox,” when it comes to political issues. “I have always made it a point never to publicly talk about my own political beliefs as I don’t feel it’s my place to do so and use Marvel as a bully pulpit,” he said in Cup of Joe. “Our readers come in many shapes and sizes, and we need to be respectful of that. Yes, we have characters that have certain attributes built into them, like political beliefs and religious affiliations, but we try to handle those as carefully as possible, and when we present one side of a coin, I encourage my editors and creators to fairly show the other side.” The art for the Captain America story has been scrubbed, Quesada said, so that any future printings of the story will not include the sign. Maybe, as the wag posting this story concluded, the best news about all of this is that comics are in the midst of a current political discussion, a sign of significant cultural relevance. Mebbe, but I doubt anything about the Tea Baggers can be interpreted as an advance of any sort, cultural or political or, even, comical.

RECORD PRICES CLIMB INTO STRATOSPHERE

We used to ask each other, fanboys all, who would win in a show-down fight: Superman or Captain Marvel? Later—the Hulk or the Thing? And back in the 1970s, Superman faced Spider-Man in a historic cross-over. (Guess who won that one.) Yesterday, Thursday, February 25, we learned, much to our amazement, that in a confrontation between Batman and Superman —Well, To Find Out Exactly Who Won That One, Not to Mention Who Won the Gold Stanley Statuette in Australia, Who Got the Herblock in the U.S., When the New Chicago Comic-Con Is, and Who Drew The New Yorker’s Anniversary Cover—and More, Much More— You Must Hie Thee Thither to the $ubscriber/Associate Section, Where You’ll Get More of Our News Reports and Penetrating Analysis. To Get There, Click Here. And If You're Not a $ubscriber/Associate—

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